Poll: Have Sounders FC’s many injuries been more a reason for poor results or an excuse?

Injuries have been an issue for Sounders FC seemingly every year of the franchise’s existence.

It might be at its very worst right now, with no less than nine players ruled out of Saturday’s home game against Colorado and a couple more coming off injury just in time to be available.

A common topic during a slew of injuries is: “Are they a reason for poor form or are they just an excuse?”

Have significant changes to the lineup the past few weeks been the main reason for three losses in the last four games? Or is it something deeper, some combination or coaching, performance and/or whatever else?

Certainly there have been some injuries that have persisted from rushing guys back from injury too soon (more so earlier in the season). And certainly there have been some players that have underperformed to expectations (Mauro Rosales hasn’t factored into a scoring play in 477 minutes, Eddie Johnson hasn’t in 443).

Here was coach Sigi Schmid on what he’s seen in the recent slump:

“I think the reason for the losses for us in the recent streak has just been the inconsistency of the lineup that we’ve been able to bring to the table. … As a coach, my philosophy has always been that maybe the less talented you are, the more structure you bring to your team; the more talented you are, you give the players that freedom to improvise and innovate, because that’s the reason you brought those players here.”

“We’ve been in that middle ground, where we’ve had some guys, haven’t had some guys, so it’s a question of, ‘Do we add some structure? Do we keep them being free a little bit more?’ It just hasn’t quite worked for us because of the mix of players all the time. I’m confident that once we get that group out there consistently that we’ll get the results. And we’ve been good at home lately. We need to continue to be good at home and win these games.”